Springfield Army vet saw bombed out remains of Germany after WWII

Hometown Veterans is a regular feature profiling Clark and Champaign County veterans. This week the Springfield News-Sun profiles Carl Hamman of Springfield.

Name: Carl Hamman

Hometown: Mansfield, Ohio

Current Residence: Masonic Home in Springfield

Family: Wife, three children, three children-in-law, seven grandchildren, two grandchildren-in-law, four great grandchildren (20 total in family).

Career After the Military: Insurance agent, 32 years; hotel auditor, eight years part-time; health care center, front desk clerk, 14 years part-time

RELATED: Springfield vet completed secret WWII missions

Branch of Service: U.S. Army

Did you join the military or were you drafted? Drafted in 1951

Dates of Service: 1951-1953

Deployments/Bases: Ft. Meade, Md.; Camp Atterbury, Ind.; Ft. Jackson, S.C.; Henri Kaserne, Munich, Germany; Camp Bowie, Texas; Indiantown Gap, Pa.

Total time that you served? Two years

What did you do in the service? Tank crew — bow gunner

READ MORE: Springfield sailor killed in Pearl Harbor now home 75 years later

What did you gain from serving in the military? I am a US Army veteran forever … God bless America.

What do you remember most about your service? I went to Munich, Germany, seven years after World War II and the bombed buildings were everywhere. Not rebuilt. I visited Dachau Concentration Camp and cried.

What would you like readers to know about your military experience? I was age 21, single and I grew up.

Is there anything else you want readers to know about you that we didn't ask? Appreciate those WWII guys. They saved the world.

Hometown Veterans is compiled with the assistance of local Vietnam veteran Randy Ark. To nominate a veteran, e-mail samantha.sommer@coxinc.com or randyark48@gmail.com or call 937-328-0363. Any veteran of any military branch, years of service and age is eligible to be profiled.

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